One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Buck Rogers Week: "Mark of the Saurian" (February 5, 1981)

Just
as an armistice has been declared between the Directorate and the Saurian
Empire, a group of Saurian nationals masquerade in human form, as Ambassador
Cabot (Linden Chiles) and his party.

Cabot
and his team board the Searcher, and plot to take the exploratory ship into the
“restricted zone” near the Delta Quadrant Defense Station. The Saurian plan is to secretly seize control of that station,
a weapon so powerful it caused their people to seek peace.

Buck
(Gil Gerard), suffering from “Cygnus Fever,” is able to detect the Ambassador
and his party as they really are: alien
infiltrators.

Although
Wilma (Erin Gray) believes Buck’s story, the Searcher crew fears that Rogers is
delusional, and even dangerous. They try to keep him in bed, and
sedated, while the Saurians seek to stop him.

Meanwhile,
Buck attempts to convince his friends that the Saurians are playing the crew for
fools…

“Mark
of the Saurian” is a solid episode of the second season Buck Rogers (1979-1981)
format. Alas, the story also appears regurgitated, almost note for note, from another popular sci-fi series of the disco decade: Space: 1999 (1975-1977).

Fans
of that series will certainly remember a Year Two story and two-part episode, called “The
Bringers of Wonder.” There, Commander
John Koenig (Martin Landau) is injured during an eagle crash, and consigned to
Medical Center. While there, he undergoes a head-injury treatment that alters
his brainwaves.

At
the same time, a ship apparently from Earth, a super swift, nears Moonbase
Alpha. It is manned entirely by friends of the
Alphans, including Dr. Shaw, Helena Russell’s (Barbara Bain) mentor.

But
when Koenig awakens, he doesn’t see human friends from Earth, he sees “monsters
from another dimension” who are operating by their own malevolent agenda (a
plot to detonate the nuclear waste domes on the moon).

Koenig
attempts to convince his friends that he is not delusional or hallucinating,
but they fear his injury is affecting his mind. He is out of his head, so-to-speak.

The
points of similarity between the two stories are suspiciously numerous.

In
both cases, we have the protagonist or hero of the show dealing with an
injury/sickness. Koenig has a brain injury. Buck suffers from Cygnus
Fever. This is important, because this “condition”
is the excuse by which his subordinates fail to heed his warning about enemy
infiltrators.

In
both cases, one of the key alien infiltrators is a doctor or physician, an individual with access to
the sick bay/Medical Center, and so can therefore attempt to harm the sick protagonist. It was Dr. Shaw in “Bringers of Wonder,” and
Dr. Moray in “Mark of the Saurian” who commit this act. They both seek to stop the one person who can see the invaders as they really are.

In
both cases, a man whose word is absolutely dependable is easily questioned because of
the prior incident (brain injury/Cygnus fever), leaving that man to have to act
alone, without the support of his friends.

In
both cases, the aliens with the secret agenda (to detonate the domes; or take
over the Delta Quadrant Defense Station) are only outed when the protagonist
manipulates an instrument in the control room to alter the conditions of that
room and make the aliens visible to shocked co-workers.

In
“Bringers of Wonder,” Koenig uses sonic manipulation in Command Center to
allow the Alphans to see the “earthlings” as he sees them...as slimy aliens.

In “Mark of the
Saurian,” Buck adjusts the thermostat on the Searcher’s bridge, making it
cold. The Saurians -- who are cold-blooded -- collapse, and when
unconscious, appear in their true, reptilian form.

In
sci-fi TV, many stories are influenced by older stories. Many series offer variations on a theme, or
on a trope (like “the silicon based life form,” or the “fight to the death.”) But “Mark of the Saurian” isn’t a variation
on a theme so much as it is a straight-up regurgitation of “Bringers of Wonder.” It is a point-by-point repeat.

That fact established, it’s not a bad episode in the scheme of things. Buck, feeling
alone, discovers the two people he can truly count on in a crisis: Wilma and
Hawk (Thom Christopher), and the episode helps us glean a sense of those
friendships.

On
the other hand, some questions are indeed left unanswered.

How do the Saurians trick Twiki and Crichton
into seeing them as human beings? They are robots, after all, not susceptible to a disguise device that depends, apparently, on "body chemistry."

And since when has the Directorate been at
war with the Saurians? And if the
Saurians broke the armistice, does that mean the war with the Saurians will
resume?

Finally, why is Buck so mean and insulting to his doctor in this episode? He is the worst patient, ever!

Despite
such questions, I enjoy some of the call-backs to Season One in "Mark of the Saurian." These
include the re-use of the space station miniature from “Space Vampire,” and the
re-use of the Directorate dress uniforms, seen as far back as “Awakening.”
Also, the Directorate gets a specific name-check.

If only we heard a mention of Dr. Huer.

Fans
of 1970s electronic toys will also note that Lakeside’s Computer Perfection
makes an extended cameo as a view screen control panel in Searcher’s sick
bay. The unmistakable blue and white toy
is seen several times at Buck’s bedside, and there are two close-ups of the
game’s controls (under a blue hood).

Finally,
one might wonder how I can enumerate all the similarities here to Space:1999
and yet still assess this Buck Rogers episode as one of the better second
season shows.

The answer is simple. By comparison to efforts like “The Golden Man”
or “Shgoratchx!"even a retread like “Mark of the Saurians” is a welcome relief.

2 comments:

John,I think of all the blogs on the interwebs, only you would point out the Computer Perfection game at Buck's bedside (and that was a compliment) !"The Bringers of Wonder" was one of my favorite S2 episodes of Space:1999, and the juxtaposition here is obvious. As you say, it doesn't detract from the show unless you are familiar with what came before.The Saurians, as presented in reality, don't have the same visual "oomph" as do the invaders of Moonbase Alpha, who are so over-the-top grotesque, even we as viewers question Koenig's sanity. This adds a layer to the proceedings which isn't present in the Buck Rogers version.Also, good points regarding Chrichton and Twiki. These are the types of things that are overlooked during the rigors of production, or were addressed in a deleted scene that is not made available until years later, if ever.Still, another great review.Steve

About John

award-winning author of 27 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).

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